Are term limits needed?

Conservative columnist George Will, in discussing the Tom DeLay scandal, makes the case for a reform that is unlikely to happen:
“A surgical reform would be congressional term limits, which would end careerism, thereby changing the incentives for entering politics and for becoming, when in office, an enabler of rent-seekers in exchange for their help in retaining office forever. The movement for limits — a Madisonian reform to alter the dynamic of interestedness that inevitably animates politics — was surging until four months after Republicans took control of the House. In May 1995 the Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 that congressional terms could not be limited by states’ statutes. Hence a constitutional amendment is necessary. Hence Congress must initiate limits on itself. That will never happen.”
Opponents of term limits say that they would take power away from voters to choose their leaders and would hurt the country by putting inexperienced leaders in positions of power. Proponents of limits say that career politicians are more likely to put their careers before their constituents and bow to special interests and corruption. What do you think?
Posted by Melissa Cooley

8 Comments

  1. mrcontroversy
    Posted January 11, 2006 at 2:39 pm | Permalink

    I like what Dan Glickman had to say about this 15 years ago…”I’m all for California having term limits.”If there were term limits, Boeing and Spirit Aerospace would be headed to Californy faster than Mach I.The original Connecticut Compromise that created our bicameral Congress was created to protect small states from big states. But could the Founding Fathers have anticipated a time when seven U.S. metropolitan areas have populations greater than the entire planet had in 1776?If we are to have term limits, it should be in one of two forms: either allowing each state to decide for itself, or a second Connecticut Compromise that only limits those states with 10 or more electoral votes.

  2. Ben Huie
    Posted January 11, 2006 at 2:47 pm | Permalink

    Didn’t Tanker Todd campaign in part on a term-limits platform?

  3. Galahad
    Posted January 11, 2006 at 3:15 pm | Permalink

    Term limits are good if you have lousy representatives. They’re bad if you have good ones.

    So . . . it’s a dilemma.

    I think we should make our entire system more representative of minority views and more responsive to majority views.

    For starters, that would mean doing away with the electoral college that gives representation to rocks and trees instead of people and is the reason George W. Bush “won” in 2000.

  4. Galahad
    Posted January 11, 2006 at 3:18 pm | Permalink

    Term limits help when you’ve got an idiot representative and they hurt when you’ve got a wise one.

    I’ll let the reader decide which category Tanker Todd belongs in.

    If we’re going to reshuffle politics in this country, let’s start with the outdated and grossly UNdemocratic electoral college system–the system that put GW into the White House even though he lost and would have put Kerry into the White House had he carried Ohio, even though he too lost.

  5. Galahad
    Posted January 11, 2006 at 3:19 pm | Permalink

    oops . . . it tells me it didn’t post and then it does . . .

    technology, hmmm . . .

  6. Ray Thomas
    Posted January 11, 2006 at 5:10 pm | Permalink

    We have term limits now. They are called ‘elections’.

  7. mrcontroversy
    Posted January 11, 2006 at 5:20 pm | Permalink

    But Ray, then people would have to pay attention! Like that’s ever going to happen.

  8. J M Walker
    Posted January 11, 2006 at 11:01 pm | Permalink

    I have to agree with Ray: Elections. It’s not term limits that got us where we are today, it’s us. We the voters doing the samo-samo because we’re too freakin lazy to do what we should do: learn all we can about the candidates and the issues.

    Moaning and gripping isn’t going to accomplish a damn thing. Galahad, get over it. Bush IS the president whether you like it or not. Figure out who YOU would want to replace the idiot with and stump for him or her. Find issues; find quality candidates.

    It’s the issues that are going to decide the next president. Who do you want in there to see that they are carried out? We’ve got three years to hash out ideas. How about how to keep jobs in the United States? Think about it. Do you want to give big business breaks to stay here? Do you want to go the isolationist route and force business to stay? Got any other ideas?

    I get really sick of hearing and reading nothing but gripes and nothing else. How about some real meat and potatos? How about some real ideas? The Democrats used to be the party of ideas. Where are they? Give me a good reason to vote Democrat in the next election.

    Don’t use term limits as an excuse. Use informed voters and term limits won’t be needed.